


one hundred years

by americaninja



Category: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-24
Updated: 2019-07-24
Packaged: 2020-07-19 05:50:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969060
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/americaninja/pseuds/americaninja
Summary: A Gerudo woman who's about to have a baby considers what fate has in store for her.





	one hundred years

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place a little over ten thousand years before Breath of the Wild itself takes place.  
> I went more experimental with this, so I hope you like it.

They’d tried to erase him from their history, but she still knew. She knew the stories about how every one hundred years, a boy would be born to the Gerudo. He would become their king, either by taking the throne or by being given it. His heart would turn towards evil, and he would set out to conquer or destroy the rest of Hyrule. He would be stopped by a princess and a hero. So it went, every time, and so it would always go in the future.

  
She knew this, and in her heart she was afraid. Certainly, many other Gerudo were pregnant this year, this one hundredth year, and they had similar worries. Then they would give birth, and said worries would melt away as they held their new baby daughters for the first time. Life would go on. But she was still waiting for the moment. She had given it much thought, and she had decided what she would do once she gave birth.

  
Her husband was Hylian. They traveled the land together as merchants. They were happy, but he didn't know her fears. She hadn't told him, for many of his kind had forgotten how the Gerudo were unluckily, cruelly fated to bring about such a man. She didn’t want to worry him. She didn’t want to think about it.

  
They were in Hateno Village, selling their wares, when she was overcome by pain. Her husband began to panic and called for help. A couple of villagers let her lean on them, even though she was much taller than they, and they led her into their house and onto the bed. The midwife arrived a minute later. She had bright red hair, much like herself, and that was a moment of fleeting comfort before the pain came back in full force.

  
When it was over, the midwife gently placed her new baby boy in her arms before calling her husband back in. As she waited for him to enter, she felt tears build in her eyes, but not even she knew if they were tears of joy or sorrow.

  
Slowly, she brought her boy close to her chest. When her husband saw his son, he was overjoyed. He sat down next to her and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, but she hardly noticed. She was thinking again. Fate, unthinking and blind, had chosen her. Simply by being born, her son had begun his slow march towards the inevitable. She didn’t know if she could stop it, but she could certainly try. She would raise him with love, and every day she would hope and pray that it would be enough to free him from his cruel destiny, or at least delay it. That was what she had decided long ago.

  
When her husband asked if she had any ideas on what to name him, she sighed a little. There were some things that tradition demanded. What difference would it make if she named him that? So she said, as if she had just come up with it, that perhaps they could name him Ganondorf. Her husband liked it very much.

  
She didn’t know whether or not she would live to see her son try to destroy the world, but she would always know that she tried her best to raise him right. That he tried his best to be something else. Perhaps it was all a sham, the idea that fate could be swayed from its path, but she knew that it was better to try than to give in.

  
And so, she would try. And so, he would try.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!  
> I think it's worth noting that [this lovely comic](https://bumofthewild.tumblr.com/post/185621823339/botw-2-inspired-me-to-finally-get-cracking-on-all) was bumping around in my head before and while I wrote it. This story isn't a direct adaptation of the comic, it's just a bit of inspiration, and you should give it a look.


End file.
